Drug Lord: The Book

"The drug smuggling business goes on, the slaughtered dead pile up, the U.S. agencies continue to ratchet up their budgets, the prisons grow larger and all the real rules of the game are in this book, some kind of masterpiece." -- Charles Bowden

Tagged: Michoacan police

One of Mexico’s top cartel leaders made the public claim that the sitting governor of Michoacan paid him a large sum of money for votes and recently offered more cash for peace. The cartel leader claims that since he turned down the second offer, he is now a target for execution.

“Why is Silvano doing this? The problem is I am not convenient to him–I know too much,” said Nicolas “El Gordo” Sierra, the top leader of the Los Viagras, a group considered by law enforcement to be the armed wing of La Nueva Familia Michoacana Cartel. In the video released through social media, Sierra claims his reluctance to make a new deal with Governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo and the fact that “he knows too much” triggered the state government to send police forces to kill him.

“At the start of your campaign you sent me $1 million pesos to help you with votes,” Sierra says. “Twenty days ago, you tried to offer me $10 million pesos to ensure the safety of the state–to hook me into making a commitment to you and if I didn’t keep my part, you would send the government against me … You are mad because I turned down the money.”

The accusations come days after the Mexican Army was shamed into arresting one of the chief enforcers for Los Viagras. Mexican soldiers and Michoacan police tracked down Jordy “El H” Oseguera aka Jordi Villa Patricio; his capture came six days after Breitbart Texas published a series of exclusive photographs that showed the Oseguera and Mexican soldiers apparently interacting in a friendly fashion. Following the apparent crackdown on Los Viagras, cartel gunmen spent several days torching vehicles throughout the state to pressure authorities into releasing Oseguera.

“We are puppets of the politicians, we are distractions–that’s how they want to keep us,” Sierra said.